HANDY KITCHER HELPERS FROM TURBAN CHOPSTICKS

While I love cooking things from scratch, I do use pre-made curry pastes occasionally. At the recent Tasty Australia showcase, my interest was piqued by Turban Chopsticks after I met the brand founder, vivacious Mei Sann Yong.

A quick chat revealed the friendly entrepreneur was born in Malaysia but grew up in Perth, Australia. According to Mei, she founded Turban Chopsticks when she encountered cooking inconveniences in her busy life, early in her career.

Mei said: “As a busy working professional who travel constantly, I didn’t have much time for cooking. After a long day, I wanted home-cooked meals - the kind I grew up with - that were healthy and tasted amazing. But I also didn’t have the time to source and cook everything from scratch nor do I want to use prepackaged food with suspicious ingredients and origins.”

She soon identified a gap in the market for pre-made meal kits and curry sauces with bold flavours that used clean ingredients. That’s where Turban Chopsticks’ convenient, pre-made meal kits and ready-to-use sauces come in.

 

Raised by a full house of bakers, chefs, restaurant owners, food businesses, home cooks, and (some say extreme) food lovers, Mei has put her own exposure to various cuisines and exotic ingredients as the starting point of Turban Chopsticks.

 

“Turban Chopsticks gives busy mums and dads, working professionals, and enthusiastic home cooks a sneaky shortcut to beautifully home cooked Asian and Indian inspired meals.  They can use it as a foolproof foundation to create their own tasty masterpieces. Cooking food from the heart is something everyone can nail with Turban Chopsticks.”

Putting Turban Chopsticks to the test, I used Turban Chopsticks Red Curry Sauce to cover a whole red snapper. After wrapping up the fish in banana leaves, I chucked it into the toaster oven to bake. 

Half an hour later, the fragrant aroma permeated the whole house and we soon sat down to a delicious, robustly flavoured fish for dinner. A few days later my 20-year old daughter spread the remaining Turban Chopsticks Red Curry Sauce to grill salmon with equally scrumptious results.

 

For more information about Turban Chopsticks, visit: 

https://turbanchopsticks.com.au

2019 REGIONAL WOK COMPETITION AT SHANGRI-LA KUALA LUMPUR

Being a chef isn’t a vocation for the faint-hearted. Especially when one has to step up to the plate and pit one’s cooking skills at Shangri-La Hotels’ regional 2019 Chinese Cuisine Wok Competition.

Held at Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur recently, the above dish was one of the final creations rustled up by the competing chefs who represented their hotels at the internal regional level competition.

 

 

Aimed at raising the bar for Chinese cuisine among Shangri-La chefs, the 3-day 2019 Chinese Cuisine Wok Competition is a platform for the competitors to showcase their culinary talent and expertise.

 

Divided into three stages: hotel, regional and global level, the 18 competitors already bested the starting pool of 90 contestants at the hotel level, to make the cut for the regional stage.

 

Members of the media and food bloggers including yours truly were invited to join the Wok Competition judging panel. Together with celebrity cookbook author Danielle Peita Graham, we entered the Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur’s cavernous kitchen where the heat was on the chef competitors.

The seasoned chefs were steadfastly focused on cooking up a storm despite the presence of a camera crew, photographers and us judges. They remained cool, calm and collected despite all the attention on them; some even sportingly waved and mustered up a smile for our live social media posts.

We observed the chefs’ methodical approach as the clock ticked away. Personally, I admire their willingness to stand the heat in the kitchen, enduring the challenge of cooking up good food repeatedly day in day out.

The scoresheet given to us was comprehensive and specific; covering criteria such as preparation & hygiene, technique execution, ingredients & taste, and dish presentation. Each competitor also has to rationalise and explain the crux of their dish.

Homegrown talent Chin Jia Jian from Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur proffered Sichuan Style Baked Cod whilst the only rose Heidy Juventia Lovena proved her unflappable capability with Stir-fried Cod with Chinese dumplings, Garden Greens & Caramelised Sauce.

Hats off to the chefs who made it so far. They’d be leaving the cooking challenge with new experience and greater insights on how to raise their Chinese cuisine game from the constructive feedback and critique given.

Six winning chefs from the regional heat will then proceed to the first round at the global level. Only the top three will have a chance to battle it out in the second round, to determine their final standing and who will ‘wok’ tall as champion.